guppy_sandhu | Coral's first birthday party

Coral's first birthday party

Outside in a quiet corner of the garden, well away from the lake, a birthday party has been set up.

There's a paddling pool with some toys in, a picnic spread out on a cloth, and a sign saying 'Happy Birthday Coral'.

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"No, gravity. It means... well, it means that things fall down. The ground pulls on it, sort of."

"It's why you don't fall off the ground." Guppy says.

Fry nods.

Coral does the little triangle sign with her fingers, and crawls through the water over towards Enzo.

"Hey, Coral!" Enzo crouches. "What're you playing with?"

Coral strokes her throat slightly with her fingers.

"Water." Guppy says, copying the sign. "Can you say water?"

Coral remains resolutely quiet for the moment.

Enzo copies the gesture as well. "And what else do you have there?"

Coral moves her hand like a duck's beak and makes a quacky noise.

"Duck." Guppy says, copying it. "I know you can say a 'd' sound because you can say Daddy."

"Duh." Coral says.

"I have a duck like that, too. But mine runs around and gets behind things and makes a huge mess when you try to catch it, so I have to keep it in a box."

"You have a duck?" Fry asks. "A real one?"

"No, it's a toy like Coral's. It's just... weird."

"Does it squeak?" Fry asks. This is important.

"Sure does! It goes, 'Quux! Quux!'"

"Don't you mean Quack?"

"No. Is that what they say on Earth?"

Fry makes a realistic duck noise.

"Hey, that's good!"

"That was a mallard." Fry says solumnly. "This is a goose."

He makes a similar quacking noise.

"And this is a swan."

Yep, that quack sounds pretty much the same.

"Very nice," declares Enzo, who can't hear any difference and isn't sure if he's meant to.

Fry nods. He can think of the difference in his mind, but not make it with his mouth, which is rather annoying.

"And this is an adelie penguin." he says, making a similar quack noise.

Coral makes a quack noise too. Guppy laughs.

"Penguins quux? I mean quack?"

"They make a quacky sort of noise." Guppy says.

"Cool."

The lone penguin to be found wandering Mainframe never makes any noise. No one's quite sure what he's doing there, for that matter. They're not even a Linux system.

"Are you able to go in the pool?" Guppy asks Enzo. "I don't want you to get electricuted."

"As long as no one splashes my face," Enzo replies, sitting down to pull off his boots.

"I'm not sure the little ones can be trusted to understand that." Guppy says.

Enzo pauses, then shrugs. "I'll try to keep my mouth closed. It'll be fine."

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